Right before my eyes...

 

 

I close my eyes and imagine beauty.
I imagine hope.

Daylight comes. Colors bounce off the water reflecting the wounds of the world around me. Waves, violent, yet like a breath of fresh air felt through out my entire chest. Broken pieces of the past washed ashore trying to find purpose along each step I take. Clouds so perfectly shaped sit above it all, unable to hide His light. Sunshine seems to mock the clouds. I walk along the shore, feet placed barefoot among it all. Eyes open, mind searching, heart longing to have it all makes sense. I see others just like me, searching for something, but only seeing footsteps placed behind us in the sand, yet never in front of us to guide us where we need to go. With each step taken, time changes. The debris littering our path, changes. The light sometimes seems to go away. Clouds hover, bringing darkness to try to suffocate our courage to go where we cannot see. The storm is here. I can hear the rage of the waves next to me, reminding me there is something bigger out there. I try to keep walking, but the wind forces me to my knees. Rain drops from the tip of my nose. It's as though night suddenly stole the beauty of day, and somehow took a piece of us with it. I can feel my heart race in desperation to find light, to find warmth, to find strength to keep going. I bring my hands to my face. Sand had found a home between my fingers. I can taste the salt fom my tears. Others all around, yet I can't hear them. I listen to the waves again, the wind rushing by my ears, the rain seemingly loud and damaging, yet somehow soft and calm on my skin. "I hear you," I whisper. "I hear you."

What keeps us walking through it all? Where has that light gone? Is it the footsteps we have not yet taken, but can imagine them anyway that drives us? Is it the others, and realizing that even if we can't always see it...they may be fighting a storm too? Or is it the mere notion that even on the sunniest days, the rain can come...but if you remember...that if you could see through those clouds...if you could fly above them all...you would be reminded that the sun, the light, His light is always there and the world at times tries to hide it. It's always there. Fight through it all...for just that, whatever the light in your life may be. There is beauty in the storms He sends us. There is hope in the footprints we have made. And there is change when we reach through the darkness to grab one another.

I open my eyes and see beauty.
I see hope.

 

by Kiona